The Nuseirat massacre. Like many of you I was horrified when watching the initial videos and reading the reports about the massacre. Then came news the Biden 320 million dollar humanitarian floating aide pier was used as a staging ground for the attack. I sunk to a spiritual emptiness I cannot seem to shake.
What to say? What to write? What to feel? All has been a void … devoid of hope. Devoid of any discernible feeling. Devoid of sleep. Devoid of energy. Devoid of anything original or poignant to offer here on Substack.
Then came guilt and shame. Guilt and shame that I am an American. Guilt and shame that I have been so easily duped by the government and the news. Guilt and shame that I realize ‘Auschwitz’ has been reborn and feel helpless even though I judged and questioned the German people of the 1930’s regarding their Auschwitz. Guilt and shame that I have the audacity to believe I’m suffering when it is the people of Gaza who suffer.
In my desire to not think or feel or not-feel I started a new novel. Within the opening pages the author introduced a painting technique I was not familiar with, anamorphosis. Anamorphosis is an optical illusion whereby an image appears to be totally distorted when seen from the usual vantage point, but appears normal when viewed from a specific angle. The author offered an example. A painting titled, The Ambassadors (below). Painted in 1533 by Hans Holbein the Younger The Ambassadors contains two examples of anamorphosis.
The first example of anamorphosis is directly in front of the two ambassadors. I didn’t see it at first. Then I changed my perspective and there it was. The skull.
In the 1500’s and 1600’s skulls were often the symbol added to a painting. The reason for the skull? To remind people to contemplate death. (You can research and read about the second example in the painting)
As I read about anamorphosis and the symbol of the skull it became clear as to why ‘today’ was the day The Ambassadors came into my awareness. True …. Biden, Netanyahu, Trump and our congress don’t wear skulls on their caps or lapels like the SS…
…what they do is much worse. They pretend to be caring, humanitarians (today Monday the USA is conducting a food drop over Gaza) when in reality they are murdering soul-less zombies just like the Nazi’s in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The painting of The Ambassadors was an in-your-face message that what you see or what you are told is (too often) NOT the truth.
Hidden somewhere in the Biden Humanitarian Floating Pier, paid for by American citizens, is the SS skull of death. We live in a death cult. That was my ‘ah ha’. We live in a death cult and are being led by death cult zombies who call themselves Christians.
A death cult in our schools.
A death cult in our climate crisis.
A death cult in our Neo-Fascist Christian churches sucking people dry.
A death cult in our lack of health care ….or any care about United States citizens.
A death cult in our relationships with countries of the world … not just Israel and Gaza …. but Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Ukraine on and on and on.
A death cult in our cities and on our reservations and in the homeless tent cities across the country that are becoming more ubiquitous every month.
And where will one of our two stellar ‘skull wearing’ choices for president take us in 2024 and beyond?
Not life. I can assure you of that.
Then why are we not taking a stand against these two demented evil choices that have been presented to us? Why are we not fighting for a true caring, compassionate, kind, wise and alert leader who will be concerned about us, the climate, our children and grand children … about how history will remember us?
Is it because the dominant culture doesn’t care about people of color? Is it because people of privilege don’t really care about those who have little or nothing? Is it because we are all sheeple? Is it because evil does reign supreme?
Gaza is a mirror. As I’ve written before Rumi wrote, ‘You are the mirror and the image in it.’
We MUST act now. We MUST save the Palestinian people … they are a mirror for what befalls us all now. The death skull is re-appearing in its fullest form not a hidden symbol any longer. The death skull is now openly mocking us for what America and Israel has become. We ARE Nazi Germany in its fullest form. WE are the evil in the world now … not anyone else. Zionist Israel and Zionist USA politicians are simply Nazi’s in a new suit. NaZi-onism.
We must change the current reality. Call your representatives. Vote intelligently on a local level. Pray harder. Run for a government position yourself. Write articles in your local newspapers. Stand on a corner and demand new leaders. Demand a cease fire in Gaza and Ukraine.
We must not let the death skull preside,
So sad and so well said!
Quite depressing , bitter statement which however does not constitute an US exclusivity . We are dealing with a global epidemic that affects much of the global West.
given the scale of the disaster, only a global cataclysmic event could bring it to an end.
The psychopaths who preside over the destinies of the planet are working on it, and, they undoubtedly imagine surviving this calamity and, that they will be able to continue to reign on the remains of the planet which will have undergone a major demographic reduction.
Sad, Sad planet…
"Gaza is a mirror. As I’ve written before Rumi wrote, ‘You are the mirror and the image in it.’"
Absolutely true and so few are willing to see it and call it out.